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This article is the first of a series of articles on design thinking and what we at CLC Advisors, LLC call “i.e.,” the “idea economy.”

This week alone, I traveled from one continent to another and down the eastern coast and back home again. All this air travel was made possible by the investment, research, and development in science and technology, some of which came from space research from NASA and the military. Some of that investment birthed technologies like satellites and GPS for air transport guidance, internet connectivity and the wide array of mobile apps on my smartphone to get me to my destinations, reminders, plane ticket bookings, wingtip technologies on the Boeing and Airbus planes, wind and jet stream resiliency for airplane stability, weather guidance for a smoother ride home, medical research on passenger comfort, and research on gravity to land safely on the ground to name a few on what tax payer dollars and investments in science, technology, and space years ago has provided for our technologies today.

This week culminated in some spending two days with IBM’s OS Earth group, a new think tank bringing together a group of designers, scientists, and coders, the more fashionable of names now for one who was a programmer mere decades ago. I was reminded again yesterday during our sessions of why we are often drawn to the impossible and tasked with finding those answers and solutions to burning questions. It is great leadership that can allow impossible to become possible and no matter who is sitting in an office in a city, territory, or country near you, that progress cannot be stifled.

“Newton explored the meaning of gravity. Last month electric lights and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became available. Only last week did we develop penicillin and television and nuclear power, and now if America’s spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight.

This is a breathtaking pace, and such a pace cannot help but create new ills as it dispels old, new ignorance, new problems, new dangers. Surely the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hardships, as well as high reward.

So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to wait. But this city of Houston, this state of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward — and so will space.”
– President John F. Kennedy, Jr.

As I watched a program hosted by Morgan Freeman on wormhole theories, I was also reminded that time does not always move linearly. Einstein in his theory of relativity proved that time sometimes folds and we see patterns of repetitiveness. This is one of those times, but no matter what, it is always fluid. So, take this time to move to the past for a little over 17 minutes to one of the greatest and inspirational leaders with whom we had too short of time with, but in that short time inspired a generation and the ripple effects of an incredible era of invention, innovation, new industries, humanity, and wealth creation. Believe me, it is worth those 17 minutes of time to hear those presidential words again.

The broad advancements in science in the areas of climate change, earth science, research and development, mathematics, and technology are still necessary and to echo White House Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith, “not a charity case, but a prosperity case.” It is all hands on deck and imperative for the survival of many species on this Spaceship Earth.

If you are an entrepreneur or startups who are working on climate change, aerospace, data science your own Mars Shot, or market entry into the United States, our team at CLC Advisors, LLC can help you. Contact us to find out more information or go to our website www.clcadvisors.com.

About CLC Advisors, LLCCLC Advisors, LLC is a firm of trusted advisors and management consultants focusing on development and execution strategies to build and incubate value-based business ventures, innovations, initiatives, and forward technologies. We are dedicated to finding solutions for traditional business models or expanding into the growing arenas of impact investing, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and philanthropy venture capital.

On Sunday, 27 September, 2015, twenty-eight amateur and professional astronomers and photographers ranging from ages 5 to 65 descended upon the English countryside in Salisbury, UK, to the Stonehenge monument in Amesbury. The reason for this occasion that has been occurring for the past twelve years was to view the full moon rise amongst the stones.

Autumn Supermoon rise at Stonehenge. Salisbury, UK.

Since 2002, Pete Glastonbury has been organizing this special access event to view the full moon risings for the last 12 years. The first was a special commission for Stonehenge that included renowned archaeoastronomers Professor Gerald Hawkins, Professor Vance Tiede and Professor Hubert Allen. Fast-forward a dozen years and we have English Heritage’s steward Simon Banton as unofficial guide and new generations of astronomers.

Pete Glastonbury

This year wasn’t any regular autumn full moon rise, but a “super moon” coinciding with a blood full moon in combination with a total lunar eclipse later in the evening. This phenomenon has not occurred in more than 30 years, the last occurring in 1982, and the next one expected in 2033. The perigee full moon, when the moon is closest to the earth (approximately 31,000 miles closer), was fully visible rising from the stone circle of Stonehenge and our group of astronomers were ready with their cameras and tripods to capture the moment as the sun was seen setting directly behind them.

Sunset at Stonehenge Circle, 27 September, 2015

Lunar eclipses typically occur about twice a year when the Earth’s shadow blankets the moon from the sun. Modern-day scientists and astronomers can predict eclipses many centuries into the future and the stones at Stonehenge were constructed in a fashion that in ancient times communities were using their own methods to predict such occurrences. This fourth and final eclipse of a lunar tetrad was also called the “blood moon” as the moon appears in a reddish-orange brown during full lunar eclipse.

Supermoon rise at Stonehenge Circle

According to Simon Banton, a steward of English Heritage who led this group into the inner circle of the stones, the builders of Stonehenge were astonishing engineers. “Someone conceived the design of the structure as an architect. There are many hundreds of stone circles in Britain alone. Stonehenge was built with stones designed to fit into other stones. Two uprights and one across the top of the stones.”

The winter solstice sunset signifies the end of one cycle and the beginning of another cycle. The only unarguable alignment of Stonehenge in the way it was built in the direction facing the winter solstice with a progression in height: Two small, two medium, and one large, increasing in height. Entering the temple is most impressive is what’s facing, framing, or from the heel stone.

British-born American archaeoastronomer Gerald Hawkins first proposed that Stonehenge was an an ancient astronomical observatory that was used to predict the movements of the stars and sun. Using an early-model IBM 7090 computer, Hawkins entered the positions of the standing stones and other features of Stonehenge to model the movements and positions of the sun and moon using the positions of 56 holes as markers for the moon and sun to calculate the nodes of lunar orbit twice a day in a 28-day cycle.

One of the 56 Aubrey holes at Stonehenge.

With modern-day technology in archaeoastronomy, science is able to replicate and predict the accuracy of the stones at Stonehenge to measure the lunar orbits and seasons and their relevance even today. As space science outreach and retired teacher Chris Starr, 62, from Somerset said, “The experience of watching the moonrise was once in a lifetime, the sharing of a common experience from today, and what the ancients witnessed. Sharing a sense of wonder and a common thread. Stonehenge is an observatory built by some really smart ancestors. Even emerging from the plains of East Africa. It must have been quite a spectacle for our ancestors.”

Somerset’s Chris Starr at Stonehenge examining Bluestones.

Todd Howard, 40, another Stonehenge participant who was introduced to these outings through SpaceFest channels, pondered on the construction of Stonehenge. “It was built by intelligent people with astronomical awareness. Too many things that don’t line up to be a full observatory, but it had a huge social element to it,” as people traveled as far as Scotland to feast and celebrate the beginning of the new year.

Todd Howard

The furthest participant to travel was astrophotographer Jeanette Lamb, 52, who came all the way from Queensland, Australia, for the first time. She has entered local astronomy competitions and has been awarded prizes for her photographs of the night sky and stars. “I cried when the moon rose over the stones. The history and privilege of being allowed at Stonehenge to view the moon rise is amazing. When you live in a country where there is no astronomical society, online communities bring astronomers and space scientists together. The online community is making our world smaller.” Indeed it is.

Astrophotographer Jeanette Lamb. Photo credit: Amjad Zaidi.

For more on the documentary Pete Glastonbury and Silent Earth are currently filming, including the work of Professor Gerald Hawkins here.

NASA and the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will host Atlantis – Celebrate the Journey will commemorate the move of space shuttle Atlantis from Kennedy to its final destination for permanent display at KSC’s Visitor Complex on Friday, Nov. 2. The event will highlight the past, present and future of space exploration while marking the successful completion of the Space Shuttle Program.

The move will begin at 7 a.m. when Atlantis leaves Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at about 2 miles per hour on the 106-foot-long Orbiter Transporter System. The orbiter will make its way to Kennedy Space Center headquarters where at about 9:45 a.m. thousands of current NASA employees and former shuttle workers are scheduled to attend a private event that will include a ceremony to mark the transfer of Atlantis to the visitor complex.

Atlantis will then head to Space Florida’s Exploration Park, a 65-acre area that will provide a festival setting for a half-day event where guests can see the shuttle up close and “in the round.” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana and the space shuttle astronauts from STS-135, the final shuttle and Atlantis mission, are also expected to attend.

In addition, Exploration Park will feature spaceflight and exploration exhibits provided by several space industry partners and NASA, including the Orion Crew Module, designed for deep space human exploration as the flagship of the nation’s next-generation space fleet.

The Exploration Park portion of the day is open to those purchasing the special Explorer Package, which includes regular Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex admission.

“The final trip of Atlantis will be the very last time anyone is going to see a space shuttle in motion or out in the open, making it a truly unique and momentous viewing opportunity,” said Bill Moore, chief operating officer of Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex for Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts, which operates the visitor complex for NASA.

“Atlantis is a spacecraft that has flown 33 missions into space, logging more than 125 million miles, and it was the last orbiter in space and the last to touch down at Kennedy Space Center. Seeing the orbiter up close will be an emotional experience,” Moore said.

Atlantis will then leave Exploration Park and complete the final leg of its journey, traveling in front of Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex along State Road 405/NASA Parkway before entering its new home, a $100 million interactive exhibit complex currently under construction and set to open in July 2013.

After the approximate 6 p.m. arrival, a 10-minute fireworks show will illuminate the skies of Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, providing the grand finale to an extraordinary day.

The goal of NASA Social is to allow people who regularly interact with each other via social networks to meet in person and discuss space exploration. NASA Social participants will have the opportunity for a special “hard hat tour” of the new Atlantis Exhibit building, witness the arrival of space shuttle Atlantis at Space Florida’s Exploration Park and see Atlantis on the final leg of its 10-mile journey entering the new orbiter home at the KSC Visitor Complex. See featured space flight hardware and other launch support vehicles from the past, present and future of space exploration and listen to presentations honoring the Space Shuttle Program. Tour NASA facilities at Kennedy Space Center to learn about NASA’s current and future programs. Experience a host of interactive activities and exhibits from NASA Centers around the country, and discover the latest exhibits at the KSC Visitor Complex.

CLC Advisors, LLC CEO Cindy Chin is proud to return back to NASA Social to close out NASA’s Space Shuttle Program.

“I have always been a huge fan of the Space Shuttle since I was a child in school. I used to sketch the schematics of the shuttle and learned about astronomy from my father, who is a physicist and former microchip designer. The timing couldn’t be better with the movements in science, technology, green business and energy, and in the interest to combine private sector business and public government sectors, a huge focus in social impact and innovation.

Being able to welcome Space Shuttle Endeavour OV-105 to California and launching her final flight from NASA Dryden was an amazing opportunity. This final leg with Space Shuttle Atlantis OV-104 at Kennedy Space Center is a wonderful once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a part of history where true innovation, dreams, and new frontiers were mere ideas and then realized. The next stages have already begun and like nebulas, stars are born.” – Cindy Chin, CEO